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Spain-Cultural Heritage

Historical journey through World Heritage in Spain

Spain has the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage assets in the world. This is eloquent testimony of the riches and variety of Spanish culture. This culture remains open to the world, it has not ceased to enrich itself throughout its history, and it has even projected itself to the other side of the ocean: America. A review of all the Spanish World Heritage assets constitutes a matchless guide through the past and present of Spanish culture.

From Atapuerca to avant-garde Catalonian architecture, Spanish culture offers extraordinary richness and density. A historical review of the UNESCO World Heritage assets in Spain provides the best possible evidence, as each of these places has been affected by the numerous strands of history that have combined to form the culture of our country today.

· Natural spaces

· Prehistory

· Romanic and Visigothic Hispania

· Between Christianity and Islam

· Gateway to Europe and America

· The Enlightenment and Modernism

Spain - Leisure and Entertainment

Public holidays in Spain are held on the same date each year. However, as with the UK, this can change depending on whether the feast day or day of celebration falls on a Sunday. Celebration days can also be region specific as some areas have their own feast days to commemorate certain patron saints.

National holiday dates include:

- January 1st, New Year’s Day (Año Nuevo)
- January 6th, Epiphany (Epifanía del Señor)
- Easter falls on various dates each year and consists of national holidays on both Good Friday and Easter Monday. The dates can vary by as much as a few weeks, sometimes Easter can fall at the end of March, sometimes early April, sometimes late April.
- May 1st, Labour Day (Fiesta del Trabajo)
- June 23rd, Corpus Cristi, (this is observed in several regions although not all)
- July 25th, Santiago (This is observed in some regions although not all)
- August 15th, Feast of the Assumption (Asunción de la Virgen)
- October 12th, Spain’s National Day (Fiesta Nacional de España - also called Día de la Hispanidad)
- November 1st, All Saints Day
- December 6th, Constitution Day
- December 8th, Feast of the Immaculate Conception (La Inmaculada Concepción)
- December 25th, Christmas Day (Natividad del Señor)

As with the UK national and public holidays many businesses will be closed. Banks will most definitely not be doing business on these days but some shops may decide to continue operation. If the national holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday then the Spanish have a term ‘haciendo puente’ which means ‘doing a bridge’. They will often choose to take the Monday or Friday in between the weekend and the feast day as a holiday to extend their break to a 4 day weekend.

Many of the festival days of Spain have a religious origin, but nowadays the religious significance tends to be lost within the celebrations. There are many well-known festivals such as the Fiesta de San Fermin held in July in Pamplona. This is known around the world as the Running of the Bulls. As a matter of fact each month somewhere across Spain there is at least one festival taking place. From carnivals to folk songs, whatever your taste there is a festival in Spain to suit you.

There are many other leisure options in Spain as well as the festivals. There are 12 cities in Spain that have UNESCO World Heritage Site status, Alcalá de Henares, Ávila, Cáceres, Córdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza, Salamanca, San Cristóbal de la Laguna, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona and Toledo and a total of 42 sites around the country that have the same status. This is second only to Italy, a country which has a total of 45 sites. The larger cities of Madrid and Barcelona are popular with tourists looking for a cultural city break, and both these cities have historical significance. There are buildings with amazing architecture and the shopping in both areas is fantastic. Holiday makers often opt of the coastal areas of Spain such as the Costa Brava, Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol on the Spanish mainland, and the islands of the Canaries and Balearics. In these areas there are plenty of seasonal activities, water sports, nightclubs and bars and for those looking to relax and unwind miles and miles of beautiful sandy beaches. Some of these areas still attract winter tourism even though temperatures are milder, they do tend to be less harsh than winter temperatures in the UK.

Following on from a 4 year partial no smoking ban, Spain now operates a full smoking ban on every indoors public place. Restaurants, bars and cafes can no longer allow their patrons to smoke indoors. Hotels must have no more than 30% smoking rooms and smoking is even banned outside in public areas that are purpose built for children such as playgrounds and play parks. Childcare facilities are no longer allowed to let anyone smoke either in or outside of the premises. Mental hospitals, jails and care homes for the elderly are currently allowed to have a public smoking area that workers may not enter, but general hospitals are forbidden to allow smoking in or around their buildings. If smoking bans are continually violated then the authorities have the power to shut down the premises.

Visiting the cinema is a popular past time in Spain, however most English speaking films will be provided with Spanish subtitles or be dubbed. If a showing has “VO”, “VOSE”, “VOSC” beside it then it will be screened in English.

Tourism

At the blog’s media section, you’ll find a series of TV/Video spots which are part of the advertising campaign to promote the image of Spain under the title of “I need Spain”.

1º Make a list of the things which are listed which you are (not) supposed to need when visiting Spain?

I NEED…	I DON´T NEED…

2º. En la sección de recursos, el último vídeo corresponde con el spot publicitario del gobierno español para promocionar el turismo en España. Después de visionarlo, contesta a las siguientes cuestiones:
a) Enumera los tipos de turismo que puedes ver en el vídeo.
b) ¿Por qué crees que la campaña publicitaria se denomina "I Need Spain"?

3º. Imagínate que trabajas en una empresa de publicidad y te encargan que realices un cartel publicitario o un video presentación de SANTANDER (Ten en cuenta, que dicho cartel tiene que promocionar algún monumento o tradición). Todo elemento promocional suele contar con alguno de los siguientes elementos:
a) Una imagen. (o conjunto a través de un video) Puede ser tanto una fotografía, una serie en forma de video, un dibujo... Tiene que atraer la atención y ser representativo de los que quieres publicitar. Se puede jugar con elementos más abstractos o más realistas.
b) Nombre de la localidad o el evento que quieres publicitar (en de que te decidas por esto último, no olvides incluir las fechas en la que se realiza tal conmemoración.
c) Es recomendable que tenga un lema (del tipo: "I need Spain") corto pero atractivo.

Are Spanish People Rude?

Are Spanish People Rude?

It’s a bit more complicated than it first seems to be, especially for English or American people.

The informal Spanish queuing system which, to the untrained foreigners eyes, does indeed appear to be a shambles at best: The last person in asks ‘Quien es el ultimo?’, or ‘Quien da la vez?’, in order to establish who is last in turn. They then simply have to remember who that person is and step up to the counter when their marker is done with their shopping.

Saying that Spanish people are rude is of course, as much of a generalisation as saying that all Spanish people like flamenco. There are rude people and polite people everywhere in Spain, just as there are in England, the US and Zimbabwe. However, Spanish ‘loudness‘ or ‘rudeness‘ is one of the most frequently remarked upon aspects of the Spanish character by foreigners. At first I thought it was just foreign people but soon discovered that the impression was fairly widespread amongst visitors to Spain from many other countries. Here’s the thing…Spanish People are Not Rude, Just Polite in a Spanish Way

Physical Proximity and verbal addressing

Spanish people want to defy the laws of physics when getting on a train at 8 a.m. and I would add the legions of 70 year-old Spanish grannies in supermarkets trying to push in to the Retiro café toilet. Some Spanish grannies are incredible. Everybody else can be standing there queuing to pay at the checkout and the granny elbows her way to the front –as if no-one else were in the queue -and then refuses to look at, acknowledge or respond to anyone who tries to tell her differently.

However, physical proximity and the signals it sends to other people is radically different in Spain and other Mediterranean countries than in England or USA. Spanish people are more tactile as a rule and get closer when they speak to you, whether or not you are particularly acquainted to them. It can also cause more serious communications problems when doing business – Anglo-saxon businessmen are used to a more formal and distanced treatment when doing business whereas your average Spanish businessman will stand about 30cm from your nose, gesticulate and pat you on the shoulder every couple of minutes. This makes English businesspeople think that Spaniards are rude and uncouth and Spaniards think that foreigners are snobbish and distant. Neither of these statements is particularly true: they are just two different cultures and ways of doing the same thing. Verbally, Spanish people can also seem to be a bit rude to foreign people. A clarifying example might put this into context. An English person has to learn to be louder and more direct. In Spanish this is normally done in bars with the imperative: “Give me two beers!” No strange looks, quicker service and everybody’s happy. This is not always the case everywhere or in restaurants but serves to illustrate the point. So, in conclusion, of course Spanish people are not rude but what is considered rude or polite in Spain is not the same as in anglo-saxon cultures.

Spanish Demography-Inmigration

Spanish Demography

Immigration

According to the Spanish government there were 4.5 million foreign residents in Spain in 2007; independent estimates put the figure at 4.8 million people, or 11% of the total population. According to residence permit data for 2011, more than 860,000 were Romanian, about 770,000 were Moroccan, approximately 360,000 were Ecuadorian, and 270,000 were Colombian. Other sizeable foreign communities are British, Bolivian, German, Italian, Bulgarian, and Chinese. There are more than 200,000 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa living in Spain. Since 2000, Spain has experienced high population growth as a result of immigration flows, despite a birth rate that is only half the replacement level. This sudden and ongoing inflow of immigrants, particularly those arriving clandestinely by sea, has caused noticeable social tension.

Within the EU, Spain had the second highest immigration rate in percentage terms after Cyprus, but by a great margin, the highest in absolute numbers, up to 2008. The number of immigrants in Spain had grown up from 500,000 people in 1996 to 5.2 million in 2008 out of a total population of 46 million. In 2005 alone, a regularisation programme increased the legal immigrant population by 700,000 people. There are a number of reasons for the high level of immigration, including Spain's cultural ties with Latin America, its geographical position, the porosity of its borders, the large size of its underground economy and the strength of the agricultural and construction sectors, which demand more low cost labour than can be offered by the national workforce. Another statistically significant factor is the large number of residents of EU origin typically retiring to Spain's Mediterranean coast. In fact, Spain was Europe's largest absorber of migrants from 2002 to 2007, with its immigrant population more than doubling as 2.5 million people arrived. According to the Financial Times, Spain is the most favoured destination for West Europeans considering a move from their own country and seeking jobs elsewhere in the EU.

In 2008, the government instituted a Plan of Voluntary Return which encouraged unemployed immigrants from outside the EU to return to their home countries and receive several incentives, including the right to keep their unemployment benefits and transfer whatever they contributed to the Spanish Social Security. The program had little effect; during its first two months, just 1,400 immigrants took up the offer. What the program failed to do, the sharp and prolonged economic crisis has done from 2010 to 2011 in that tens of thousands of immigrants have left the country due to lack of jobs. In 2011 alone, more than half a million people have left Spain. For the first time in decades the net migration rate is expected to be negative, and 9 out 10 emigrants are foreigners.

Have a look at this magazine article we read to answer the questions: http://grupo.iberia.es/content/GrupoIberia/Sala%20de%20Prensa/Publicaciones/Revista%20Ronda/Octubre%202011/08%20Magazine.pdf

ETArticle

El terrosismo es una cosa que algunos personas usan para demonstrar que tienen una causa justa y a los que el resto de nosotros nesecitamos prestar atencion. Toda la gente del mundo acepta el hecho de que el terrosismo es una parte de nuestro mundo hoy en dia. Para terminar con el terrorismo ahora, parece obvio que los politicos necesitan escuchar a la gente que estan usando terrorismo para traer atencion de determinadas causas.

Necesitamos entender que cuando digo que los policitos necesitan escuchar a los terroistas, quiero decir que necesitan escuchar a las palabaras y no a la violencia. En primer lugar el grupo ETA es una grupo de independencia de los vascos que viven en Espana y el sur de Francia. ETA queire tener su propio pais, el Pais Vasco independiente respecto a otros gobiernos. En segundo lugar, para obtener sus objetivos, han utilizado violencia y el terrorismo para obtener la atencion a su causa. Ademas, mucha gente ha muerto y miembros de ETA estan encarcelados. Lo que es mas, ningun gobierno puede manejar la problema y todas estas vidas fueran cortadas para nada.

Sin enbargo, algunos politicos han intentado terminar con la violencia causada por ETA. Por supesto, este es una tarea muy dificil. Mucha gente dice que la mejor ruta para tomar con ETA es disolver el groupo primero y sin condiciones. Pero de hecho, algunos politicos no piensan lo mismo. El ex-Primer Ministro de Reino Unido le dije al Primer Ministro de Espana, Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero, que para resolver el conflicto con ETA, debe centarse en haciendo paz con los terroristas en lugar de disolver ETA primero. En otras palabaras, hacer paz en total con el grupo. Otra consideracion es que ETA ha dicho que la disolucion es imposible hasta que los activistas de ETA que estan encarcelado queden libres.

Puede parecer que la paz entre ETA y los gobiernos de Espana y Francia esta muy lejos ahora, aunque cada dia es mas cerca. Los politicos estan hablando con miembros de ETA, y posiblemente debido a esto, ETA ha terminado de usar la violencia recientemente. Desde mi punto de vista, ya que no es probable que los gobiernos vayan a liberar los activistas y terroristas de ETA, deben empezar hablando.

Spanish Siesta Essay

Se conoce que a los españoles les encanta su tiempo de siesta del mediodía. Este tiempo es un periodo de descanso durante el cual la mayoría de las tiendas cierran. Muchos piensan que se asocia con trabajadores perezosos y cosas así, pero hay regulaciones en todas las comunidades autónomas limitando las horas de trabajo. Debemos destacar hechos de la historia compleja que pueden revelar las razones de estas regulaciones, y el porqué se instituyó desde el principio.

En primer lugar, hay muchas variaciones sobre la origen de la siesta, pero historiadores dicen que empezó durante la Guerra Civil. Es decir que durante este periodo de pobreza extrema, los ciudadanos tuvieron que trabajar en múltiples lugares para mantener su familia. La siesta era la hora para almorzar y descansar antes de que los trabajadores tuvieran que ir a su otro trabajo del tarde. En concreto, después de muchos años con la rutina siesta, los españoles se acostumbraron y ahora es un parte regular de la cultura. Las regulaciones de los negocios no se introdujeron hasta los años noventa después de la liberalización comercial en los años ochenta. El régimen de Franco reprimió la gente de España tanto que los años iniciales posteriores al dictador estuvieron marcados por la ausencia de normativa. Los asuntos de los pequeños negocios familiares sobre la competencia entre corporaciones provocaron más restricciones con respecto a las horas de apertura a promover la supervivencia de los negocios familiares de quienes no tenían los recursos o las finanzas para dirigir horas adicionales.

La regulación más conocida es el cierre en los domingos. Normalmente, los negocios pueden estar abiertos un domingo por mes, habitualmente la primer domingo y también durante temporadas especiales como Navidad. Algunos negocios como bancos, farmacias, y restaurantes le dieron una excepción y puede estar abierto todos los domingos sin restricciones. También ahora se puede encontrar abierta en domingo una tienda de comestibles en la mayoría de ciudades. El aumento de negocios corporativos en España esta reduciendo la tendencia de cerrar en los domingos y finalmente, la hora de siesta terminará por completamente.

A pesar de la tradición de la siesta en España, cada año más tiendas se abren por la exigencia de los ciudadanos. Por esta razón, las regulaciones terminarán por no existir en los años próximos cercanos. Para concluir, la introducción de las ideales occidentales y los negocios corporativos van a destruir un parte de la cultura española que ayuda distinguir la historia de una nación.